This is the first of two closely related articles that together describe how results from research can be used as a guide for curriculum development. This first article shows how the investigation of student understanding of electric circuits by the Physics Education Group has contributed to the building of a research base. The second article describes how the group has drawn on this resource both in developing a curriculum for laboratory-based instruction and in adapting this curriculum to fit the constraints of a traditional introductory course. Also discussed is how, in turn, development and implementation of the curriculum have enriched the research base.

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Results from an investigation of student understanding of physical optics indicate that university students who have studied this topic at the introductory level and beyond often cannot account for the pattern produced on a screen when light is incident on a single or double slit. Many do not know whether to apply geometrical or physical optics to a given situation and may inappropriately combine elements of both. Some specific difficulties that were identified for single and double slits proved to be sufficiently serious to preclude students from acquiring even a qualitative understanding of the wave model for light. In addition, we found that students in advanced courses often had mistaken beliefs about photons, which they incorporated into their interpretation of the wave model for matter. A major objective of this investigation was to build a research base for the design of a curriculum to help students develop a functional understanding of introductory optics.

In this paper we describe a long-term, large-scale investigation of the ability of university students to treat velocity and acceleration as vectors in one and two dimensions. Some serious conceptual and reasoning difficulties identified among introductory students also were common among pre-college teachers and physics graduate students. Insights gained from this research guided the development of instructional materials that help improve student learning at the introductory level and beyond. The results have strong implications for the teaching of undergraduate physics, the professional development of teachers, and the preparation of teaching assistants.

The Physics Education Group at the University of Washington is deeply involved in preparing K-12 teachers to teach physics and physical science by inquiry. During the academic year, the Department offers special courses for preservice (prospective) teachers. During the summer, the group conducts a sixweek, intensive NSF Summer Institute for Inservice Teachers. The group also designs and helps conduct local short-term workshops for teachers. This paper is a distillation of more than 25 years of experience in working with K-12 teachers. 1 Teacher preparation has been an integral part of our group's comprehensive program in research, curriculum development, and instruction. Research by our group focuses on investigations of student understanding in physics. The results are used to guide the design of instructional materials for various student populations at the introductory level and beyond. We have drawn on our research findings and teaching experience in developing Physics by Inquiry. 2 This self-contained, laboratory-based curriculum is designed for use in university courses to prepare K-12 teachers to teach physics and physical science effectively. Ongoing assesment of the instructional materials takes place both at our university and at pilot sites. Need for Special Physics Courses for TeachersMost science departments, including physics, do not take into account the needs of prospective elementary and middle school teachers. These students often lack the prerequisites for even the standard introductory courses, especially in the physical sciences. They are unlikely to pursue the study of any science in depth because the vertical structure of the subject matter requires progression through a prescribed sequence of courses. In physics, in particular, the need for mathematical facility in the standard courses effectively excludes those planning to teach below the high-school level. The only courses generally available are almost entirely descriptive. A great deal of material is presented, for which most preservice and inservice teachers (as well as other students) have neither the Preparing Teachers to Teach Physics and Physical Science by InquiryLillian C. McDermott and Peter S. Shaffer University of Washington~ 71 ~ background nor the time to absorb. Such courses often reinforce a tendency to perceive physics as an inert body of information to be memorized, not as an active process of inquiry in which teachers and students can participate.Many university faculty seem to believe that the effectiveness of a high school teacher depends on the number and rigor of courses taken in the discipline. This attitude seems to prevail in most physics departments. Accordingly, the usual practice is to offer the standard department courses to future high school physics teachers (and sometimes to middle school teachers). Although the content of the high school physics curriculum is closely matched to the introductory university course, this course is not adequate preparation for teaching the same material in high school. The ...